Moment of Vulnerability
by ZimVader0017
Summary: The boys need to work together in order to survive a massive earthquake.


Invader Zim and it's characters belong to Jhonen Vásquez, Viacom and Nickelodeon

This story will start out as ZaDE (as in Zim and Dib Enemies), but they will slowly become friends because of circumstances where they will be forced to trust each other.

Constructive criticism is accepted and appreciated as long as it is aimed to help me improve in my writing. English isn't my native language and I use spell check, but words could be missed, so if you find any spelling or grammar mistakes please tell me and I will fix them. I won't be offended :)

~Moment of Vulnerability~

By ZimVader0017

Chapter 1

Dib's POV

Dad has gotten over the whole 'no perpetual energy for you' faze, and has decided to forgive the people and try it again. This time he made a smaller machine; the first one was too big and took too much space. This new one would still be powerful, but small enough to fit under the city. Unlike the first time which Zim sabotaged, the initiation went on without trouble, Gaz and I stood next to Dad, and everyone was happy. Several days later, I started noticing some strange cracks on the pavement. The streets here have been always in precarious conditions, so I didn't think too much of it. But, then, at skool, there would be barely noticeable quakes, which were waved off by the principal as side effects of the skool being such an old structure. I, at first, accepted that as true. But as the events continued, stronger and more frequently, I realized something very bad must be happening.

I consulted with Dad and told him my suspicion that it had to do with the machine he created. I thought that the energy waves it sent was messing with the Earth's magnetic field, making cracks underground that created earthquakes. He, as always, laughed like a maniac and dismissed my concern off as a joke, saying how impossible it was something like that happening as it was one of his "marvelous" scientific creations. Giving up on him, I decided to tell Gaz. She couldn't have cared less. Why, even after all the times she blew me off, I still didn't expect that from her is anyone's guess….. I couldn't tell anyone at skool because they would probably ignore me and say I'm crazy like they do everyday. So I decided to keep my mouth shut and hope that the quakes wouldn't get worse. Of course, I should have known better.

Zim's POV

Ugh, another day spent on this horrible skool. These humans are so stupid! So, I didn't know what a 'stereo' was. How could I? Such a primitive device. And they dared to laugh at me, the amazing ZIM! Oh, how I hate them…

Dib's staring at me again, I should use that gesture I learned this morning*. Haha, success! He's completely shocked. Oh, no, he stood up and is coming this way.

"Zim, why did you flip me off? Do you even know what that means?"

"Well, I know it's supposed to offend and it worked."

"Ugh, whatever. Listen, I've been meaning to ask you. Do those earthquakes we've been having seem strange to you?"

I remembered that he week before I had been working in my lab when a particularly strong shake struck. It nearly destroyed my testing capsules.

"Yes, they are happening more frequently than they should, at least according to my research. I have also found that they are getting stronger each time."

When I looked up at Dib he had a panicked expression.

"I knew it! These earthquakes are not normal! I think it's that machine Dad made, but he refuses to listen to me."

"But, that is usual of him, isn't it? Never listening to you?" I asked.

His face fell and he looked away.

"Yeah, it is usual. I'm insane right?" He said bitterly.

I flashed him a smirk.

"Of course. Everyone says that. It must be true."

Author's POV

Dib glared at him and walked away. Zim's smirk grew into a satisfied evil smile. It was always fun to mess with the Dib-human.

Dib thought about what Zim had said. Not the part where he said he was crazy, he chose to ignore that for the time being. The fact that even Zim found the earthquakes unusual worried him. If only he could have gotten more information from the irken, like how much more frequent were the vibrations from what was normal. He would have to find that out on his own.

Half an hour passed with Dib barely paying attention to his teacher. He was still thinking how to convince his father about the danger of the earthquakes and the possible cause of them, when they were suddenly shaken by the biggest one yet.

The teacher stopped mid-sentence, his eyes showing he was starting to panic. Even in his fear, he managed to keep calm enough to follow the standard procedure in case of emergency.

When the shaking stopped, he ordered everyone to calmly walk towards the hall in an orderly fashion. The students followed his orders until a strong aftershock hit. After that, there was no stopping the unanimous panic attack that made everyone start running for the nearest exit.

Zim's POV

As the ground rumbled again, mass panic surfaced when the sound of the building's walls about to collapse was heard. Humans started running towards the nearest exist they could find. As small as I am, I managed to sidestep a couple of kids, but suddenly a rather large boy came running (which quite impressed me to see such a large meat sack being able to move that quickly), and in the process pushing me against a locker. The impact jammed my PAK, I was sure it had gotten dented somewhere, I couldn't activate my arachnopeds. While I was still checking my PAK, it suddenly started crackling with electricity, electrifying me quite painfully. Since I was in shock, I didn't notice the wall in front of me caving in until it was too late.

Dib's POV

I managed to see Gaz reach an exit, which relieved me, she wasn't in any danger of being crushed. The halls were congested with people trying to get out of the building; I could barely move an inch. Suddenly, a large cloud of dust came from the other end of the hall, meaning that a wall had just collapsed. People started panicking even more. Knowing that a collapsed wall was surely a good exit, plus it was near me, I turned around and headed toward the origin of the dust cloud. When I got there, the place looked like a mess and in front of me, like I had suspected, was a large hole where the wall had once stood. While I was making my way towards it, I heard a pained moan coming from underneath the rubble. I moved some of the larger pieces aside to find Zim with scratches in his arms and without his disguise. It must have fallen off when the wall fell on him. He noticed I was there and looked at me with his huge eyes, pleading me to help him. A part of my mind was yelling at me to leave him, he was a danger to mankind, but another part took pity on how vulnerable and hurt he looked. With a huff, I finally decided, and started getting to work removing the rest of the rubble that was trapping him.

TBC...

*About the way he learned that 'gesture', he hadn't been looking where he was going and was almost hit by a car, so you can guess the driver's reaction.


End file.
